Another possible culprit in Colony Collapse Disorder

Today I removed the remnants of the miticide treatment from Susan. Â There was very little of it left, but the scent of oil of thyme was very strong. Â Let’s hope that the treatment knocked back the varroa mites!Â Victoria is lagging a little, presumably because she is the hive that sees the sun the latest in the morning. Â Overall she looks good, but she has more comb to draw, so I made up some syrup for her. Â While I was at it, I fed the other hives as well. Â They are clearly finding nectar, but the syrup will help with the wax production that they definitely need.Â I put a second brood chamber on Emma, who gets the sun first in the morning and is going great. Â While selecting frames to use, I included 4 of the black foundation (all plastic frames, with beeswax coating). Â These are much easier to spot eggs and larvae in, so we’re aiming to switch over to these for the brood chambers. Â The bees are accepting the frames well (both Emma and Victoria had 2 black frames & are progressing well drawing out comb), and they proved their value in identifying brood. Â The capped brood is easy to spot, but the eggs are devilish hard to see.It is very peaceful, working on the hives. Â For the most part the bees were making happy little humming sounds - we’ll see how they react to a more thorough examination!Â -JustinÂ